


Dream of Green and Home

by HASA_Archivist



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: General, War of the Ring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2015-06-26
Packaged: 2018-04-06 08:22:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4214861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HASA_Archivist/pseuds/HASA_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merry reaches deep within to endure the pass of Caradhras.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dream of Green and Home

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

Merry had never known cold like this. It was a cold that pierced through every part of his body, leaving him with nothing but numbness and pain. He was being covered by snow, despite Bill the pony acting as a wind block. When they had first stopped on the mountainside, he had kept the snow swept off himself and Pippin as much as he could, but he had soon tired. Every time he opened his eyes, the wind stung them with pellets of ice, and soon, he dreaded opening them at all. He didn’t want to see what was happening anymore.

He heard a whimper from his left. Pippin was much worse off than he. Merry let his eyes slit open a tiny bit, flinching from the blast of cold that hit them immediately. He brought a numb hand up to Pippin’s face and brushed off the snow that was threatening to bury the smaller hobbit. He huddled into Pippin’s side, draping his arm and cloak around his cousin’s cold form. He was barely aware of Frodo and Sam on the other side of Pippin, but he felt the shudders of their bodies matching his own.

He’d faced deadly perils since leaving the Shire, but it struck him now that this might truly be his ending. He’d known he very well might perish on this journey, but he’d imagined it would have been in a more heroic way. Freezing to death on the side of a mountain didn’t seem right, somehow. His head dropped to rest against Pippin’s stiff curls, and he felt himself slipping away from the harsh mountain pass. He was back in Brandy Hall, safe in his rooms. He was in his own bed, comfortably under thick quilts; his body stretched on the soft mattress, every muscle relaxed. The sun was coming up, and he could look out his round window to see the green and gold of the trees and fields across the Brandywine sparkling in the morning light. He sighed and nuzzled in closer to Pippin.

He was still in this happy dream of green and home when he was wrenched back into the frigid cold by strong hands pulling him out of the snowdrift. He wished then that he’d stayed home after all - oblivious to Rings and danger and duty and love - as he stood there, numb on frozen feet. But one look at Frodo’s miserable, tired face washed the wish away, and Merry reached down into himself to the core of his soul that burned hot and bright and found the strength to stand the cold a little while longer.


End file.
